1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure pertains to a center filler assembly for railway vehicles and in particular to a modular or easily replaced and fabricated unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art attempts at reinforcing the center filler area of railway vehicles generally have involved a so-called spider unit which provides a cross-shaped assembly of reinforcing plates extending from webs of the draft sill and extending from the front and rear cover plates of the center filler assembly to be joined at the center pin guide tube. This type of design is present in the Tesseyman, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,143,216 which shows the usual spider type of center filler assembly along with a number of other, non spider type reinforcing arrangements which have been used in the past. Another type of center filler arrangement not utilizing the usual cross-shaped reinforcement members is shown in the Buzza U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,235 (1976) which shows diagonally extending reinforcing plates located at the bottom of the front and rear cover plates, adjacent the bottom cover plate, and extending upwardly to the center pin guide tube. The Buzza patent also shows a number of other arrangements using diagonal or V-shaped plate arrangements within the center filler pocket. However, neither of these above-discussed patents provide reinforcement at an area inwardly of the webs of the draft sill where high forces are encountered during transit as a car rocks back and forth on the supporting trucks.
The Spence U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,710 shows a center filler arrangement adapted to receive and distribute forces from a bevel line of a center plate by utilizing vertically extending plates. The Spence patent does not show a channel-shaped member having a horizontal top plate to interconnect and rigidify the vertical plates and the center filler end plates. The structure shown herein is designed specifically to resist these high forces which are encountered during transit and which are the source of fatigue failures and high stresses in the center filler and bolster area of the railway vehicle.